


Late Nights

by ioniansea



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Canon Compliant, Canon Universe, Cuban Lance (Voltron), Cute, Fluff, Gay Keith (Voltron), M/M, Non-Sexual Intimacy, Pre-Relationship, Touch-Starved Keith (Voltron), beans beans the magical fruit, headcanon about lance’s family, i love these boys, late nights late chats, this is pure self-indulgence at this point
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-22
Updated: 2019-02-22
Packaged: 2019-11-02 02:04:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17879033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ioniansea/pseuds/ioniansea
Summary: Keith watched as Lance swallowed the bite with too much effort. “You know… you could just stop eating them,” he offered.“What, and waste perfectly good beans?” Lance balked.-----Or, the one in which nobody can fall asleep so Lance eats beans and gives Keith a massage.





	Late Nights

Keith flipped over on the bed to lay on his stomach. He waited. And waited. And waited some more. He flipped back around, staring mindlessly up at the grey ceiling. He squinted at the soft blue lights in anger. Were they the reason he couldn’t fall asleep? He yawned. It must be that. He closed his eyes tightly, willing himself to go to sleep. He concentrated. And then stopped concentrating. He breathed in and out, in and out. He tried breathing slowly. He tried breathing quickly. He started to count in his head.

 

He reached 32 before he quit.

 

He sat up with a huff and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. Might as well take a walk to clear the mind. Get some fresh air. Or, as much fresh air as possible aboard a castle-turned-spaceship.

 

Keith’s footsteps echoed through the hall as he walked through the hall. It was a bit eery to be wandering around so late at night, especially given how dark it was around, but what else was he supposed to do? Just lie in bed and try to fall asleep again? The logical part of his brain said  _ yes _ , but the bored side disagreed.

 

A scratching sound distracted him from his train of thought. He stopped in his tracks and peered around - what was it? A mouse? A rat?

 

A person?

 

It stopped. He clenched a hand into a fist. It was nothing, he told himself. Just paranoia. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

 

If he actually wanted to get some shut eye, he should really be lying down right now. But his feet started up again and continued to take him further from his quarters. He yawned again. Maybe he should go back.

 

He turned a corner and blinked as the hall was washed in a bright light quite unlike the softly glowing lamps in the hallway. The kitchen. Was he subconsciously hungry? He rubbed his eyes and subconsciously yawned again. He swore he didn’t  _ feel  _ tired. He ignored the bags under his eyes; they told a different story.

 

He crept through the hall, slowly making his way to the kitchen door. He silently looked inside when he made it to the opening.

 

Inside the kitchen, Lance hummed a song quietly and turned the flame for the stove up. He danced around, seemingly trying to waste time waiting for the pot to warm up. Keith smirked, could you even call that dancing? It was more of an enthusiastic hip wiggle than anything else.

 

A cute hip wiggle though. Lance obviously did not know he was there. Should he announce himself? Would that be too weird? Keith spent exactly 3 seconds pondering this before deciding he was simply too tired to care and brushed the thoughts aside.

 

“It’s late.” Keith called as he walked through the door. Lance jumped comically high and accidentally hit some body part on the counter. Keith winced a little - that sounded like it hurt.

 

“Jesus, Keith! Don’t scare me like that!” Lance said, his hand falling from his chest, where it had landed dramatically, to rubbing his side. “Ouch.” He said lamely, looking down at the spot that hit the metal countertop.

 

Keith crossed his arms and wandered over to him. “What are you doing?”

 

“Nothing!” Lance said, just a bit too quickly. He moved over to shield the pot from Keith’s view.

 

Well now he just had to know. He ducked right and a couple steps in front of him Lance followed the movement. He sprung to the left, Lance quickly matched him. “What are you doing up so late?” Lance asked, his voice becoming ever so slightly more high-pitched.

 

Keith smirked. “Nothing,” he replied casually. Lance gave him an unimpressed look.

 

Keith stopped moving forward when he finally reached Lance. Lance frowned and maintained eye contact, but he was starting to learn backwards a little. A faint blush dusted his cheeks. In a second, Keith took a step to the right, but moved left before Lance could realize what he was doing.

 

With a moment to look over Lance’s shoulder, Keith gazed down into the pot with feigned disinterest. An unappetizing gloop of brown looked right back at him. His eyebrows lifted, “Beans?”

 

“Hey!” Lance shouted, shoving Keith out of the way. He looked a bit surprised that he had shoved Keith, but after a moment, turned to quickly snatch up a spatula and stirr at the insides of the pot. “Those are my beans.” He muttered.

 

Keith couldn’t help but laugh. He surveyed the kitchen area. It was spotless as always - there was literally nothing else there save Lance and some beans.

 

“Why didn’t you want me to see… just beans?” Keith asked after his laughter died down. He leaned his elbow against the countertop and watched Lance.

 

“I don’t know!” Lance crossed his arms, spatula in hand. His blush deepened, spreading to the tips of his ears. “You were just coming at me and my brain said I needed to protect my beans!”

 

Keith stared for a second. “That’s stupid.”

 

“You’re stupid!” Lance bristled.

 

Keith just smirked. “Is this your dinner?” He rolled to lean his back on the counter.

 

“Maybe,” Lance replied defensively. He turned away from Keith to test the beans with the spatula. Apparently, they were warm enough because he turned the stove off and marched the pot over to the table in the middle of the room. Keith watched in silence. “Are you judging me?” Lance grumbled quietly.

 

Keith blinked. Did he hear that right? He must have, because now Lance was pouting and staring intently into his pot of beans, avoiding any and all eye contact.

 

He slowly pushed off from the counter and made his way over to sit across from Lance at the table. “Uh, no. I’m not judging you over some beans.”

 

“Oh.”

 

An awkward pause followed. Keith rested his head against his crossed arms.

 

“I got them at the last planet we went to.” Lance said, “They are kinda like the ones from Earth.”

 

“Mm.”

 

Another awkward pause. What was Keith thinking? Not even a word as a response- just a grunt? What was he playing at? Of course that would make it awkward. He made it awkward the moment he walked into the kitchen. What was he even doing just waiting around? He didn’t want any beans.

 

“They’re pretty bad.” Lance stated plainly. His eyes were downcast and he sported the slightest frown. He looked so defeated, so unlike the normal Lance.

 

Keith racked his brain for some sort of answer.

 

“I miss my mom’s cooking.” Lance sighed. He bit his lip and Keith had to drag his eyes up from staring at his lips.

 

Keith looked at Lance. Why was he saying this all of a sudden? He glanced at the clock. 2am. Ah, that would probably explain why.

 

“Sorry.” Keith replied. He mentally slapped himself. What a jackass answer.  _ Sorry _ ? Really? Maybe he was just stupid. Was this a conversation or not?

 

He propped his elbows up on the table and slowly rubbed his temples. Lance continued to eat his bad beans with the huge spatula.

 

“So… what are you doing up? Actually.” Lance asked casually.

 

Keith looked up at him. What was he doing up? He had no idea. He should be in bed right now. “I couldn’t sleep.” He said eventually.

 

“Ah.” Lance nodded. “Me neither.”

 

“And that’s why you decided to make some beans?” Keith stopped rubbing his temples and just crossed his arms on the table.

 

“Yeah.” The other boy replied. “I guess I was feeling more homesick than I thought.” He took another bite of the beans. “But I think this is making it worse.”

 

Keith watched as Lance swallowed the bite with too much effort. “You know… you could just stop eating them.” He offered.

 

“What, and waste perfectly good beans?” Lance balked.

 

“You just said they were bad!” Keith rolled his eyes in disbelief. This boy.

 

“Hmpf.” Lance took another bite, maintaining heavy eye contact with Keith as he did it. His gaze wavered. He had to thump his chest to get it to go down. Keith gave him a look. “They’re… great…” Lance choked out.

 

“Oh my god,” Keith said, “Isn’t there something else you could do that would remind you of home?” Keith had to admit, he couldn’t exactly relate. There simply wasn’t much of a home for him to be sick for. He had no idea what Lance was thinking. Eating beans because they were vaguely similar to ones back on Earth.

 

Although, Lance actually looked like he was thinking deeply about what Keith said. He set the spatula back in the pot.

 

“I guess…” He started. Keith raised an eyebrow when a blush spread across Lance’s face. “Okay, you have to promise not to tell anyone about this.” Lance looked at Keith with a very serious face, his eyebrows turned inwards and a slight frown.

 

“Uh, sure. I won’t tell anyone.” Keith replied easily.

 

“No one! Nobody can know!” Lance thrust a pointer finger in his general direction and narrowed his eyes. “Can I trust you?”

 

Keith rolled his eyes, once again. “Lance, we’ve been on the same team for so long but you still have to ask that?”

 

If it was even possible, Lance blushed harder. “Well…” He floundered. Keith leaned in a bit and stared at the other boy. Lance looked everywhere but at Keith, not used to having his full attention. He must have really been curious.

 

“Well, it’s…” Lance tried again. After a few seconds of gesturing awkwardly with his hand, he hung his head. “It’s nothing. I’m going to go to bed.”

 

He grabbed the pot as he stood up to rinse it. Keith opened his mouth, but promptly shut it. He had nothing to say.

 

Lance swiftly rinsed the rest of the bean goop out of the pot and set it in the dishwasher along with the spatula. He yawned and turned around, jumping a little to see that Keith was just staring at him.

 

“Um… do you wanna walk back together? It’s a bit spooky around here at night.” Lance asked sheepishly.

 

“Yeah, sure.” Keith replied, as nonchalantly as he could. He stood up and they walked to the hallway together. Internally Keith breathed a sigh of relief to have Lance there, though he would never admit it. It was kind of creepy with it being so quiet in the halls.

 

They walked together in comfortable silence until they reached Keith’s room.

 

“Well, goodnight, Lance.” Keith said lamely. “Fun talk tonight.”

 

“Yeah… fun talk.” Lance gave a fake chuckle. Keith headed inside the room and was about to close the door before- “Wait, Keith!”

 

“Yeah?” Keith paused, looking back at Lance curiously.

 

“Um, okay, so this is kind of awkward and you can totally refuse if you don’t want to do it, you know, because you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do, and I am your friend, you know, we’re pals, so I totally get that and I just have this one favor I wanted to ask you, and I guess it’s kind of a favor even though it would be good for you too, like a win-win, but not to toot my own horn but I think-”

 

“Lance!” Keith interrupted, turning to face the him. “What are you talking about?”

 

“Well, you know, about something that would help me with my homesickness,” Lance started, “I was wondering if I could… give you a massage?” His voice trailed off towards the end of his sentence, Keith strained to hear him.

 

“A… massage?” Keith stared at Lance.

 

“Yeah,” Lance continued. He sheepishly reached for the back of his neck. “It’s just that my family used to always give each other, like, little massages just to relax. If someone had a stressful day or something, you could just poke around their head a little and it’d be better. I just… miss it.” Lance’s face was tomato red with the explanation. “It’s okay if that’s too weird-”

 

“No, no! That’s fine.” Keith bit his lip, “I was just surprised is all. That’s fine.” He repeated.

 

“Okay, great.” Lance’s shoulders eased and he had a small smile. He rubbed at his face, trying to get rid of some of the heat burning his cheeks.

 

“Uh... is here okay?” Keith asked, gesturing Lance towards his bedroom.

 

“Yeah!” Lance replied happily. He sauntered into the room. It was very clean. There was almost nothing in there, no trinkets, no junk. Everything Keith owned must have been tucked away in the metal dresser across the room. “It’s so bare.” Lance commented. He plopped on the bed.

 

Keith looked around as if he had never really thought of it before. “Yeah. I guess.” He looked around to Lance. On his bed.

 

For the second time that night, he mentally slapped himself. He really didn’t think this through.

 

He really hoped Lance didn’t notice the way his ears turned crimson as he followed to clamber onto his own bed. “Where do you want me to sit?”

 

“Hm,” Lance looked to the side in thought for a second. “Your back to me.” His blush had just started to go away before it started to creep back up his face.

 

Keith maneuvered around to face away from Lance and brought his legs up to sit criss-cross on the bed. He tensed as Lance placed his hand on his shoulder.

 

“Um,” Lance said from behind, “Just let me know if you… have any bad spots.”

 

Keith wasn’t sure if he meant bad spots to avoid or bad spots to touch more, but he kept his mouth shut.

 

Lance’s other hand reached up and suddenly it became very real to Keith. Lance was touching him. Lance was right there. Lance was on his bed with both hands on him. Keith breathed and immediately leaned into the touch. He frowned, trying to wipe the embarrassed frown off his face when he realized what he was doing.  _ Shit! _

 

Lance hummed as he got more into it. He kneaded the shoulder area for a while in small circles and then long strokes. He pulled at his neck and drew a deep line from his neck to the shoulder. He worked down Keith’s spine, pushing his thumbs down on either side of each bump.

 

Keith’s eyes closed. He started to breathe more smoothly.

 

Lance shifted around a little and eventually decided to put his legs on either side of Keith. Of course, it was just for balance and not just so he could pull him a little closer.

 

He focused on the movements, trying to remember what he used to do for his siblings back home and what they used to do for him. He especially liked head rubs, he remembered. He drew his hands up from Keith’s tailbone, along the spine again, until he reached the bottom of Keith’s hair. Lance grinned as he felt Keith shiver.

 

“You like it?” Lance giggled, too quietly to come off as the teasing he had intended it to be.

 

Keith tensed. “It kind of feels like you’re just doing whatever you want.” Lance laughed loudly.

 

“I guess it is a bit random.” Lance continued to rub and stroke at different parts of his shoulders and neck. He tried using the flat of his hands to spread out, and then used the pads of his fingers to work into a particularly hard spot. He moved up his neck, to his ears and then his head.

 

Keith, blissfully unaware of just how far he had leaned back, completely relaxed. It was… slow. Almost… intimate. Warmth pooled at the bottom of his stomach and spread throughout his limbs. Lance’s hands were so soft.

 

They stayed like that for a while. Lance moving around Keith’s body with fluid movements and steady hands. Keith yawned one last time as he drifted in and out of sleep. He barely registered Lance saying something before passing out entirely. Lance stilled his hands.

 

He really was out. Lance delicately slid Keith off of him to lay him down properly. He looked forlornly at the door before glancing back at Keith. It wouldn’t hurt to just spend the night here, right? It was just one night. And they were a team. And Lance had just spent however long that was massaging him…

 

Lance steeled himself and slowly leaned down to lie beside the other boy. He stared up at the ceiling. He resolved himself to get a massage back from Keith soon - he owed him now! He closed his eyes and promptly nodded off.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! This is my first published fanfic - I hope you enjoyed it! Please leave a comment with your thoughts. : ) Thanks for reading.


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